CONFEMADERA REFLECTIONS ON THE SITUATION IN THE FIELD IN AN OPEN DAY

Madrid, Nov. 13, 2008 .- The Spanish Confederation of Employers of Wood (CONFEMADERA) has organized a day of reflection on market conditions in the sector of wood and furniture, where experts have participated in the Official Credit Institute (ICO ), IESE Business School, and CONFEMADERA, with the assistance of more than 20 sectoral representatives.
The day has met with leading experts. The first to speak was Enrique Villarreal, Director General of the Technical Official Credit Institute (ICO) with a presentation on the financial crisis.A crisis "caused by the failure of the financial market," says Villarreal, while in Spain suggests that the financial sector has performed better than average.His view is that the financial model, "has to change towards more regulation, more direct supervision and control of new rules." All this, "through international coordination."
The current economic situation has led the sector of wood and furniture going to be difficult. That is why the Confederation of wood has organized a day of reflection in order to raise an organizational strategy to improve both business organizations and companies in the industry, leading to an improvement in the positioning of the sector in the short to medium term.
For his part Javier Diaz-Jimenez, visiting associate professor at IESE Business School took stock of the current economic situation. Diaz-Jimenez explained as "after the 2001 crisis we have had remarkable growth, it is more, Spain has grown at the same pace as the global economy."The current situation, "the fact that unemployment has increased by almost one million more unemployed" and the outlook for 2009, according to the IMF, is that there is "a continued contraction and contained."Despite that the expert's IESE shows his optimism, "out of this safe, because all economic cycles have always been completed although it is difficult to determine when".

The last intervention was carried out by Beatriz del Castillo, Director of CONFEMADERA, accompanied by the expert Eduardo Ballarín, Professor of Strategic Management at IESE.His presentation focused on the Plan for Modernization of the Wood and Furniture, a sector which is facing at the moment, "a decline in sales and an export-import balance that is increasingly unbalanced, it is also a sector problems in finding resources. "At the moment they are working on the plan across data and preparing self-assessment questionnaires to businesses and then "apply the data obtained to them."Therefore del Castillo stressed "the need of a modernization plan that will serve as a driving force for improving competitiveness and ensure economic sustainability in the medium-long term of its associated companies."